Theatre News

Opening: RSC Caesar, Barbershopera, Painter

10 January 2011

Amongst the major London openings, in the West End and further afield, this week are:

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 10 January 2011 (previews from 6 January), Lucy Bailey tackles Shakespeare’s Roman drama of politics and betrayal, Julius Caesar, as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ten-week residency at the Roundhouse continues (until 5 February).

OPENING TUESDAY, 11 January 2010, OperaUpClose’s acclaimed version of Puccini’s La boheme, which transposes the action to modern day Soho, returns to Soho Theatre for a run to 19 February 2011.

OPENING THURSDAY, 13 January 2011 (previews from 11 January), award-winning a capella comedy troupe Barbershopera return to London’s Trafalgar Studios 2 with their latest musical, Apocalypse No!, which continues until 5 February.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 11 January), The Fitzrovia Radio Hour, which features three radio plays performed live in 60 minutes, opens at Trafalgar Studios 2 (in the 9pm slot). The show, which pays homage to the 1940s and to “the golden age of radio”, continues until 5 February.

OPENING FRIDAY, 14 January 2011 (previews from 12 January), the Arcola Theatre in Dalston unveils its new venue on Ashwin Street with the world premiere of Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s The Painter, a play about the life of English romantic landscape painter and watercolourist JMW Turner. The theatre’s new home, which it is moving to after ten years on Arcola Street, was the former home of Reeves whose colour blocks were made famous by artists such as Turner and Constable.

Directed by Arcola artistic director Mehmet Ergen, the production, which continues until 12 February, stars Toby Jones as Turner with Niamh Cusack as mistress and mother of his two children, Sarah Danby.